Bored?

[europa]

Feeling bored? I know a lot of you are because you're camped on the forum and not posting anything. Well, here's something to really annoy your boss while you're entertaining yourself during working hours, a collection of bicycling patents ... and some other stuff

Richard
don't blame me when you're sacked

[Hotdog]

You evil man, I've just spent ages reading through that lot when I should have been working!

[heavymetal]

I know a lot of you are because you're camped on the forum and not posting anything.

Maybe they are swapping PMs and talking about us crazy people

Nice collection of patents if I could see them The entire forum must be reading them as I can't connect

Kev.

[stryker84]

Ooh... I'd rather like to build myself one of them recumbent floaty couches... and then I gotta find a place to ride/float it...

[DrEvil123]

There is soo much there to read!

[MichaelB]

Isn't it amazing how old some of the "new ideas" are !!

I love some of the simplicity and the simplstic nature of them

[Hotdog]

That's one of the great things about bicycle technology, it's extremely clever and effective yet for the most part it's still elegantly simple enough for someone to understand how it works just by looking at it.

[europa]

Like automotive technology, many things were invented long before the materials were in place to make them effective. But yes, in cycling, everything develops towards the most simple solution, regardless of the starting point. Maybe that's why I like it so much.

Richard

[mikesbytes]

Go for a 200k ride, including all the roads that madgreek rides.

_________________________________________________________________________________
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[Hotdog]

Go for a 200k ride, including all the roads that madgreek rides.

Am I being dense or is this a complete non sequitur?

[europa]

It's just Mike being Mike. Just take a deep breath and the pain will go away

Besides, I'm months away from tackling the corkscrew ... actually I'm not. Been thinking about it. The trick is the time to do it. Maybe the next time the kids are away - I'll drive to the lad's match, drive to the start of the gorge, ride the bottom of the gorge, up the corkscrew, down Montacute Rd and back to the car. Hmm, wonder what the madgreek is doing that day.

Richard
working hard to be a sucker for all mad suggestions

[europa]

Besides, I'm months away from tackling the corkscrew ... actually I'm not. Been thinking about it. The trick is the time to do it. Maybe the next time the kids are away - I'll drive to the lad's match, drive to the start of the gorge, ride the bottom of the gorge, up the corkscrew, down Montacute Rd and back to the car. Hmm, wonder what the madgreek is doing that day.

Richard
working hard to be a sucker for all mad suggestions

Here's the profile for the Corkscrew Loop - parking at Thorndon Park Resevoir, up Gorge Rd, up the Corkscrew, down Montacute Rd, along Schultze Rd back to the resevoir. 20km - not long but it does have that wee climb in the middle



The Corkscrew itself is that steep bit from 10km to the top. A lot of it is switchback hairpins. Fun ride. Coming down will be fun too - nearly tossed the motor bike into the blackberries a few times on that run

Richard

[MichaelB]

tackling the corkscrew ... actually I'm not. Been thinking about it. The trick is the time to do it. Maybe the next time the kids are away - I'll drive to the lad's match, drive to the start of the gorge, ride the bottom of the gorge, up the corkscrew, down Montacute Rd and back to the car. Hmm, wonder what the madgreek is doing that day.

I'd be interested in joining you - so keep in touch.

Suffering is much better en-masse - helps to push that little bit more ....

[MichaelB]

Here's the profile for the Corkscrew Loop - parking at Thorndon Park Resevoir, up Gorge Rd, up the Corkscrew, down Montacute Rd, along Schultze Rd back to the resevoir. 20km - not long but it does have that wee climb in the middle



The Corkscrew itself is that steep bit from 10km to the top. A lot of it is switchback hairpins. Fun ride.

Richard

What is the gradient on the steep stuff ?

Is it a public route on Bikely ?

[europa]

The gradient is somewhere between OMGosh and 'Wait a tic while I expire'.

Here's the map. I knocked it up just for this exercise. Now that bikely has been sold into commercial hands, I'm not as interested in putting the work into the routes that I used to and hence don't bother to make them pubic.

It starts and finishes at the Thorndon Park car park - I chose that simply because I know you can park there and anywhere is convenient if you're riding a loop. It goes straight up Gorge Rd which I'm not so happy about as it puts you on a narrow and busy road for part of the trip, but I'm not sure there's a convenient way around it. It'll do. If I find myself doing the loop more often, I'll sort that out - this route is good enough for a one off.

Richard

[mikesbytes]

Besides, I'm months away from tackling the corkscrew ... actually I'm not. Been thinking about it. The trick is the time to do it. Maybe the next time the kids are away - I'll drive to the lad's match, drive to the start of the gorge, ride the bottom of the gorge, up the corkscrew, down Montacute Rd and back to the car. Hmm, wonder what the madgreek is doing that day.

Richard
working hard to be a sucker for all mad suggestions

Here's the profile for the Corkscrew Loop - parking at Thorndon Park Resevoir, up Gorge Rd, up the Corkscrew, down Montacute Rd, along Schultze Rd back to the resevoir. 20km - not long but it does have that wee climb in the middle



The Corkscrew itself is that steep bit from 10km to the top. A lot of it is switchback hairpins. Fun ride. Coming down will be fun too - nearly tossed the motor bike into the blackberries a few times on that run

Richard

That hill looks pretty mean on the graph, definently not fixie territory. I've been up it in a car and could see that it was quite a climb on a bike.